Trump: Midair Collision 'Looks Like It Should Have Been Prevented'

Multiple fatalities have been confirmed after an American Airlines passenger plane collided with a Black Hawk military helicopter in the skies above Washington, DC, on Wednesday night, law enforcement sources tell outlets including CNN and the AP. No death toll or estimate has been released, but the sources say no survivors have yet been pulled from the water. The plane, a regional jet operated by American Eagle with 60 passengers and four crew members on board, was landing at DC's Ronald Reagan National Airport after a flight from Wichita, Kansas, when it collided with the helicopter, sending both aircraft into the Potomac River below. Sources say the jet is in several pieces in the water. The helicopter, which had three soldiers onboard, was on a training flight at the time.

• It's not yet clear what went tragically wrong, but President Trump said on his Truth Social network, "This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!" He described the plane as being "on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport," though it's not clear whether he was passing along information on which he had been formally briefed. "The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time," he continued. "It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn't the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn't the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane."

• The search-and-rescue operation is taking place entirely in the water, in what DC's Fire and EMS chief called "dangerous" conditions. "The challenges are access. The water that we're operating in is about 8 feet deep, there is wind, there is pieces of ice out there so it's just dangerous and hard to work in. The water is dark, it is murky, and that is a very tough condition for them to dive in." He says recovery efforts could last days.
• One person who was awaiting another flight in a terminal at Reagan describes the scene: "It didn't seem anything too strange" at first, as emergency vehicles started to gather outside the airport windows. "And then about a minute or so after that, there was an announcement of a full-ground stop, that there would be no flights landing and no flights taking off." It soon became clear that something very serious was happening and the terminal grew quiet. The airport will remain closed until at least Friday morning, per the FAA.
• Air traffic control audio captures a controller alerting the helicopter, "PAT 2-5 do you have the CRJ in sight?" There is apparently no response from the helicopter before the controller says, "PAT 2-5 pass behind the CRJ." The crash took place seconds later.

(More Potomac plane crash stories.)